building community resilience

We're grassroots Heathrow residents proving that communities less dependent on oil can be more resilient, stronger and happier. We take direct action on climate change and shrinking supplies of cheap energy by transitioning to a post-oil, community-led future for the Heathrow villages.

HARTS (Heathrow arts project) is launching a series of community murals on Friday 29th May as the last stop on the ‘Flag it Up’ parade’. The parade will begin at 11am in Harmondsworth; the village which faces almost complete demolition should a 3rd runway at Heathrow Airport be granted by the Government.

Hundreds of children living in the Heathrow villages have made flags based around the theme of ‘home’, that will be displayed on the lamp-posts, to combat the physical and social blight from the airport and the threat of its expansions and demonstrate the future that is strived for by the people of Heathrow.

The flag parade will start by St Mary’s church in Harmondsworth with activities 11am-12pm, walking to Sipson between 12-1pm, lunch at Grow Heathrow 1-2pm, (UB7 0JH), walking to Harlington between 2-3pm and finishing under the mural at Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s Church Hall with tea, music and activities, 3-4pm.

The date coincides with the final day of consultation of Airports Commissions air quality assessment and the mass action camp ‘Reclaim the Power’, where people are highlighting the need, from many different angles, for the UK to cut emissions, reduce reliance on dirty energy and create a more just society.

The ‘Flag it Up!’ parade and the community murals are part of a series of community-led arts projects in the Heathrow villages. Other projects involve landscape art, film and social sculpture. Harts is looking for artists to come to the Heathrow villages to develop projects with the community over 2015, so if you can help get in touch at:

Who would have thought of the possibility of transforming a bunch of shelves into a bike trailer? Well we’ve done it!!!

We’ve proven that you can create a quality bike trailer with a team of eager people and a bunch of materials received mostly from donations.

All parts were free except for the tow arm and a few nuts and bolts.

A whole day of planning, cutting, bolting, sawing and hugging warm cups of tea paid off and now the shelves are in use once more…… as a trailer.

The creation has been purchased by Thor, giving it a new loving home.

All the proceeds from this workshop have gone straight back into grow, helping us continue with further workshops and general sight stuff.

….The trailer has since been named Sady, after Thor’s dog who past away a while ago

Sunday 1st Feb – Intuitive Painting and Sound Healing workshop

After the previous days busy building day, Sunday became a day of calm and peace with our office being revamped into a meditative healing and painting space for the day..

With a range of percussion instruments, our bodies resonated with the sounds being created bringing us into a meditative, relaxed state.

There were no fixed music or rythm. We all played the instruments according to how we felt, being free to pick up any instrument and experiment and see what sounds are created.

Alongside being submerged in our acoustic senses, we were tactile with paint, chalks and pencils; releasing our energy onto paper . We did some mark-making going with whatever our minds felt right at the time. Our calming bodies drew squiggles and splodges not having to care whether each movement of our hand is a precise action or not. We let our creations be abstract, with no specific concept or object to draw. We expressed our inner child and allowed ourselves to be messy.

Thanks to all the facilitators for delivering this weekend of workshops and thanks to all the participants for attending. It was a truely fascinating and relaxing weekend.

There’s a new project starting in the Heathrow villages, called Harts, using community led arts of different mediums to combat the blight from the airport, encourage a more cohesive community, and cultivate a happy, healthy and sustainable community, for the long term.

THE BIG RIDE will follow a stunning route from Edinburgh to London, clocking up an impressive daily mileage. From the Scottish Lowlands and Northumberland we cycle through Yorkshire and then head gradually southwards to London cutting a path through the middle of England. Following national cycle routes, we avoid the busiest and fastest roads in favour of natural surroundings, satisfyingly challenging distances with stops in some great cities along our capital-to-capital journey.

Event organiser Dermot MacWard describes his vision for the event:

“My friend Musheir El Farra lost 8 members of his family (including 5 children) in the recent war in Gaza. His sister Dr. Mona El-Farra the Vice President of the Red Crescent society for the Gaza Strip and Director of Middle Eastern Children Alliance has asked for help. Mona wants us to help raise awareness of the situation in Palestine and also help the children’s projects she’s involved with in The Gaza Strip.

Consequently we’re planning for 1,000 cyclists to join us in one of the largest mass participation cycling events of its kind in Britain. If you do nothing else this year – dust off your bike, pump up your tyres and oil your chain for a fabulous week of pedalling and help the people of Palestine.”

We kicked off the weekend with the Radical Chat where Class War came down to discuss their Poor Doors protests in the East End and why they’re standing in this year’s general election. After a great powerpoint presentation, Jon from Class War answered a lot of interesting questions including being grilled about how he think’s he can represent anyone in parliament. Obviously, he’s an anarchist so he explained that the election isn’t an attempt to get in to parliament (infact he said he doesn’t want to get any votes) but instead is a way to take campaigning to the streets and making the most of the spectacle of the election. After a while we ended up discussing resistance and politics more broadly and we’re really looking forward to next month’s installment of Radical Chat, hosted by Action East End.

Saturday saw the bike workshop back in action. A few locals got their bikes fixed, we fixed a Grow Heathrow resident’s bike who now knows a bit more about axels, and we got a bike ready for sale. Now we’re looking forward to the ‘Build a Bike Trailer’ workshop – there’s still some spaces on this so get in touch – via shazzamheathrow@gmail.com – if you want to come along.

Then finally on Sunday we had the pleasure of hosting Campaign Against the Arms Trade, who gave a talk about their latest campaign ‘Arms to Renewables’. This was really informative about the extent of spending on arms – which is essentially only making money due to massive government subsidies – and the huge potential for positive investments in renewables – which require the same kinds of skills and expertise as making weapons. The workshop was a great opportunity to share knowledge between anti-arms campaigners and environmentalists.

Phew! What as busy weekend… now let’s do it all again this weekend with Permaculture on Saturday and Subvertising on Sunday.

Grow Heathrow, is an inclusive, sustainable community project on the site of the proposed 3rd runway. We are committed to furthering positive social change through education, autonomy and campaigning.

We are looking for responsible, enthusiastic and compassionate people who understand the unique nature of Grow Heathrow as a squatted piece of land under threat of eviction, in a village fighting against airport expansion.

Grow Heathrow is a nationally recognized organisation, making front page news. This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the most exciting and innovative projects of its time and participate from the ground up in real change on both a local and global level.

If you are interested in joining our group, we encourage you to read more about the project to see that you understand and support our aims.

Please email no more than half a page about yourself and experience, stating why you’d be good for this role and send any questions to: info@transitionheathrow.com, or call 07904174031 to talk through any queries.

These roles are currently vacant and we expect to fill them as soon as possible. Please get in touch soon, as we may appoint people before the final deadlines .
We will review applications on Monday 15th September and possibly again in October.

All roles will be supported directly by a relevant and fantastic Grow Heathrow member.

* Food Grower for Resistance

Will be part of growing group, growing fruit and vegetables on the Grow Heathrow site and propagating for the wider community.

Skills Needed: experience in organic food growing, site planning, communication with wider community, coordination of volunteers. Must be free some Sundays.

* Creative Design for Resistance

Will help with creative re-design of spaces, such as art and wood workshops. Will use arts to respond creatively to needs of collective resistance.

Skills Needed: experience in the arts / textiles / woodwork / architecture or all of the above.

* Events and Community for Resistance

Will be part of outreach team, helping organise events and projects at Grow Heathrow and in the local community, including regular workshops, skillshares and the annual Birthday Celebrations.

Skills Needed: Experience in outreach, planning and communication, coordination of volunteers, experience of working with people of different ages and abilities.

* Radical Health for Resistance

Will be part of wellbeing group and help sustain positive health in the community through facilitating good food consumption, alternative medicine and organising on-going workshops such as massage, yoga, meditation and conflict resolution.

Will be part of media team, working with local and national and online media to help share the aims of Grow Heathrow. Will liaise directly with other teams within Grow Heathrow to publicize their efforts and support their events. Will also facilitate general multi-media documentation of the Grow Heathrow project.

Skills Needed: Great if your media trained, don’t worry if not. Need experience with publicity / online media. Great if you have skills such as photography / film making, or know others who do.

Requirements for all roles:
You will be required on site for minimum 1 or 2 days per week at Grow Heathrow (exact days flexible).

There is an expectation that people will, and will want to be involved in central Grow Heathrow activities as part of their role. Such involvement will include participation in some Wednesday night meetings, 7-9pm and Community Work Thursdays, 9.30am-5.30pm.

So long as it does not contradict any of Transition Heathrow’s project aims, any ethically entrepreneurial ideas for both individuals and the group as a whole will be welcomed and carefully considered.

For all roles, resources, warm sleeping space, philosophy, companionship, musical entertainment, places on workshops and meals when at Grow Heathrow will be provided.

In October 2009 before he became Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The third runway at Heathrow is not going ahead, no ifs, no buts,” Within 30 months of taking power he set up a Commission widely expected to recommend airport expansion after his manifesto pledge runs out next year.

On Wednesday 18th June, more than 800 people packed into the Richmond Theatre to watch and judge the best viral films reminding Mr Cameron of his promise, and pressing the case against Heathrow expansion.

The No Ifs No Buts Film Competition staged by Zac Goldsmith MP in conjunction with the campaign group HACAN attracted well over 50 videos. Fifteen were shown at the event on 18th June.

The Housing Weekender, 2014

The Weekender is on the 26th and 27th April. It’s a collaboration among groups from across London, who work on a whole range of housing issues including private renting, access to welfare, squatting, co-operatives and social housing.

Please Note: All events are FREE and no booking required

DAY ONE: Saturday 26th April

NORTH WEST LONDON

INEQUALITY BUS TOUR

The Housing Inequality Bus Tour is coming to you!OUR CITY IS FOR LIVING INA HOME IS YOUR RIGHT
We are bringing: Music////Refreshments/// Useful information that can help with your housing problems///// Hop on the bus to find out more about what is causing London’s housing crisis and what we are doing about it. The Google Map route of the Bus Tour.

NORTH LONDON

Haringey Housing Action Group (HHAG) will be hosting their monthly meeting
Sat 26th April ///// 10am-12 midday ///// North London Community House, N17

Our Tottenham and Haringey Private Tenants Action Group (HPTAG) will be holding an info stall in Tottenham (opposite Bruce Grove Station, on the high road) between 1pm-2pm to give out information about the Our Tottenham Network and all campaigns to improve housing and support people to set up action groups in threatened estates in the area.

EAST LONDON

Saturday 26th April///// 12-1pm ////Hackney Town Hall

Join Digs and tell the council the private rented sector needs to change.

We will be sharing and listening to stories, playing renter bingo and presenting our dossier of stories to the council – come and meet councillors and tell them your story.

Over the last months Digs has been collecting tales of renting in Hackney. We will be presenting these stories to the council so they can’t claim ignorance on these issues, and we’ll be demanding longer tenancies and council action on profiteering landlords.

SOUTHWEST LONDON

A night of films celebrating the struggle for decent housing in our communities

7.30pm til late, Saturday 26 April ///// St. Matthew’s Tenants Hall, 10 St. Matthew’s Rd, SW2 1NH/////Drinks and other refreshments will be available

We’ll be showing a series of short films which give an insight into housing activism, past and present, and provide acknowledgment and encouragement both to those who are precariously housed and those fighting to combat this social ill. They will include contemporary projects, such as the campaign to save and expand social housing in Cressingham Gardens, and inspirational examples from recent history, such as the co-operative living spaces established by the Brixton Faeries in the 1970s.

DAY TWO: Sunday 27th April

11AM-6PM

33-37 MORELAND STREET, EC1V 8BB

11-12.15: Media Training

Lots of groups find that engagement with the mainstream media is a useful way to further their aims, but not everyone is confident in dealing with journalists to get the best results. It would be great to see more housing groups getting their voices heard. This practical training session will be led by Joe and Theo, who have been part of various grassroots campaigns including the Plane Stupid campaign against aviation expansion, and the Squash campaign against the criminalisation of squatting.

11-12.15: MIPIM

MIPIM is the world’s biggest property fair, where our cities and communities are bought and sold. It brings together developers, speculators and politicians for a week of back-scratching and champagne. The Radical Housing Network is part of a cross-European network organising opposition to MIPIM. In October, a special UK event will take place in London. Come along to find out more, and plan for action in the coming year.

12.30: Alternatives

Ever thought about setting up a housing co-op? Or maybe building your own home? Or perhaps you would like to know more about Community Land Trusts and other means of community engagement with local planning and property ownership? This session will look at ways that people are working within and outside the broken housing system to find alternative ways of gaining control over their housing and getting the homes they want and need.

We will be joined by Jon Broome, a leading self-build architect who worked with Walter Segal; Rob Morris, co-founder of the Drive co-op in North London and active member of Radical Routes; and London Community Neighbourhood Co-op, an ambitious a live/work/community space in Westminster based on sustainability, affordability and accessibility.

12.30-4.45: Action planning and preparation

Throughout the afternoon, we will be planning and preparing for a housing action in the near future. Come with ideas, energy, cardboard boxes, and maybe some for sale signs?

2.15: Understanding the Crisis

Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. His recent book, All That Is Solid (2014), argues that the solution to the housing crisis lies not in the construction of more homes, but in addressing the root cause: inequality.

Liz Davies is a housing lawyer and Chair of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. She is particularly interested in homelessness and social housing allocations, and is co-author of Housing Allocation and Homelessness (2012).

Join us to look at the causes of the housing crisis and start thinking about some of the solutions.

2.30-4.30: Law surgery and advice training

The first part of this session will be a workshop on homelessness and eviction, looking and where and how to seek legal help when facing these issues. It will be equally useful for people who would like to be able to give advice and support, and those actually facing these problems right now.

The second part of the session will be an open law surgery – so if you have questions around housing and homelessness that need a lawyer’s thoughts, come along.

3.45: Organising and Action

Defend Council Housing, London Renters, Squatters Legal Network and Lambeth Housing Activists will discuss their diverse tactics and experiences of organising in the face of the housing crisis. Together with the other groups in attendance we will think about how we can better organise across tenure and locality to develop a join-up opposition to housing injustice, and what kinds of organising and action work best for us.

5.00 Plenary

This will provide an opportunity to share the events of the weekend, including the Saturday events in Hackney, Haringey, Lambeth, New Cross, and Barnet, as well as the sessions throughout the day on Sunday. In particular, we we hear the plans and proposals for action, and feedback on how we can move forward together.

In New Cross:

Little Homes////Children and families event
Time: 2-6 pm////
Location: Sanford Housing Coop (House Zero), Sanford Walk, SE14 6 NB
Creative workshop for children and families exploring alternative housing solutions. Children will build and decorate their own houses using cardboard and colours. The workshop is run by some of the Sanford Housing-Coop members and members of We Love Cardboard.

Subscribe to our Mailing List

Sign up to our phone tree

Statements of Support

“I Hope London Borough Hillingdon would fight for Transition Heathrow all the way and purchase the land for Sipson Community residents. Residents of Vineries Close send their best wishes to the nursery and hope all goes well for the young ones and Sipson Community.”by KERSEE PRINTER, LOCAL RESIDENT